Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-12
CORRESPONDENCE.
Rothkreuz-AIOng lhe St. Gothard Railr0ad-Rock-Slid Slides-Schwyz-The KehrtunneIs-Devil's Bridges.


 LUCERNE, June 23. To the Editor of the JOURNAL COURIER:
 A capital thing to do at Lucerne is to take the train leaving at 1920 8. m. for Goes chenen. The train starts where all the trains start and gets out of town through the tun- nel common to all of them. Then the track crosses the river Reuss and goes northeast back of the hills against which Lucerne is built until it reaches place called Roth kreuz. Rothkreuz is one of the creations of the St. Gothard railroad. It is the point where all traffic centers before making the start over the Alps; and here the things and people that come from Italy are distributed and started for their respective destinations. Out West Rothkreuz would have been a city with mayor by this time. But town grows slowly in this part of the world, es- pecially when it is near such large, firmly established and conservative place as Lu- cerne. After leaving Rothkreuz the beau- ties and interest of the ride begin. First the track is up ever so high, skirting the lake of Zug, with the Rigi rising almost per pendicularly on the right. One of these days a large boulder will come down from the Rigi, and then what will happen2 There are thousands of them of all sizes all about that have come down already. Most of them are moss grown and have an aged and reas- surfing aspect. Still you feel better as you get away from the immediate vicinity of the overhanging Rigi and approach Arth. Leav- ing Arth the road runs right through the de- vastation caused in 1906 by the enormous To, a1i Ia 4ha 4o be right in the midst of it to realize it. Take the whole of East Rock, crumble it and sweep it through New Haven till in it's track houses and people are buried hundreds of feet beneath merciless rock. This terri- ble thing occurred eighty years ago and yet little bit, but cannot level. All the dyna- mite in Russia could not even the place and make it hospitable. Four thriving villages disappeared instantly and all the people in them-thousands of them. Man shuns the place in horror. fears that its remorseless cruelty be still living. Lately the space left in the hillside was measured. It is 8 mile and quarter long, thousand feet wide and from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet high. That would give mass of rock as high as the highest steeple in town-Q am not sure that there is one one hundred and
 fifty feet high)-nearly as wide as Hillhouse avenue is long, and long enough to reach oSAASNA all this mass flung at you with the velocity acquired by descent of thousands and thou sands of feet. How magnificent must have been the roar of it and awful the crash of it; and the dust and smoke of it must have filled all heaven
 Swiss activity; the cradle of Swiss liberties, backed by the glorious Mythen rising out of the plain exactly as mountains should do to make clear to youngsters what mountains are. The Mythen should be put into school geographies in answer to the question: FsWhat is mountain?' All this time re- member the sun is shining brightly, there is crisp coolness to the air unknown outside of Switzerland, and few clouds are socially dancing about among the mountain tops.
 Then you come out on the lake at Brun- nen. The Axen-Strasse takes you to Fluelen and you are whirled up the valley by Alldorf till Amsteg is reached. All this has been so written about and talked about that more words were superAuous. Once at least should one go on foot from Brunnen to Flu elen. From neither boat nor from car win dow can the beauties of the scenery be fully enjoyed, nor the wonders ot the Axen-Strasse properly appreciated. Leaving Amsteg you are soon in the midst of as glorious scenery as the Alps present, and you are soon in the midst of as extraordinary and daring rail road engineering as the skill and courage of man has yet produced. That your readers may understand what Rehrtunnel is will divest it of all irregularities and present it in it's simplest elements. If the description be not clear let appeal be made to a certain young engineer in Trumbull street, and I hereby direct that he beforehand be made comfortable and happy, and that everything be done for him to make his faculties bright and his tongue flowing.
 Imagine a railroad proceeding contentedly along valley suddenly finding itself in g cul-de-sac. In front of it perpendicular mountain five hundred feet high and on each side of it. and but short distance apart, other perpendicular mountains of equal or greater height. Beyond the first mountain is plateau extending off indef nitely. The railroad wishes to reach the ele- vation in front of it in order to continue its journey. There is the problem. Can it be donei Frenchman by the name of Favre was chief engineer of the road. To him oc- cured the bright but very simple idea that If you once got railroad inside mountain, and comfortably tunnelled, it would be en- tirely independent of terrestrial surfaces; could go as it pleased, just like a fish under water. If therefore our problematical road were to be let into one of the side noun tains and started on spiral curve it would eventually come out at point perpeEdicular to the point where it went in, and high enough up to continue it's journey on the up per level. Nothing could be simpler The railroad too might on one of its curves hop over to the other mountain and continue running therein. This is the principle in it's purest elements. In practice there are things which interfere and prevent regularity. The mountains may not be perfectly perpendicu lar, and it may not be desirable to come out exactly over the spot of ingress. All these things do not interfere with the principle, which is tunneling mountain not as an ob- stacle for the purpose of getting through 1t, but as a means for the purpose of attaining from one level to Q hiQher one The same thing might be accomplished by spiral bridge. hut that HouId ha mora arranaira